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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Israel formally accepts Quartet proposal |
| 2011-10-02 |
| Israel on Sunday formally accepted the Quartet's initiative for re-starting negotiations with the Palestinians, after a meeting between Netanyahu and his senior ministers. "Israel welcomes the Quartet's call for direct negotiations without pre-conditions with the Palestinian Authority, which was already suggested by US president Barack Obama and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, even though Israel has a number of reservations which it will bring up in the negotiations." Asked about Netanyahu's acceptance of the Quartet's proposal, Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for Abbas, said "returning to negotiations requires Israel to commit to stopping settlement." He added that Israel must also recognize the "1967 borders". In the past, Netanyahu has objected to the idea – presented in the Quartet proposal – of isolating security and territories from the issues of Jerusalem and refugees, saying that if an agreement on the territorial issue was reached, the Palestinians would have no incentive to compromise later on the other issues. His position had been that all issues should be discussed simultaneously. |
| Posted by:ryuge |